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Today was the final day of Sahashi's trial, and in their closing statement, the prosecution asked that Sahashi be sentenced to five years in jail stating that his actions caused severe losses to students and employees, and that his taking money from the shayukai fund was no grounds for leniency. The defense reasserted that Sahashi is innocent and that he was trying to save the company from bankruptcy.

In his final statement, Sahashi expressed his desire to do as much as he can to repay the money taken from the fund. The judge will render his decision on August 26.

Day 6 of Sahashi's trial was today (funny, the papers seemed to have skipped reporting on the 4th and 5th sessions), and the notion that he might get off with a light sentence seems to have gained some ground. According to the Asahi shimbun, the judge threw out 2 depositions given by the assistant manager during the investigation in which he stated that Sahashi had instructed him to use money from the shayukai employee's fund.

Terrie Lloyd's column in Japan Today is supposed to be a look at the state of eikaiwa in Japan, but it's a poor effort stuffed with meaningless business-speak. Teaching English has been on a downward slide ever since Japan's asset bubble burst. The collapse of NOVA only served to make things worse. Let's take a look at the column.

Update on the Sahashi trial today. According to the Sankei shimbun, Sahashi testified that he didn't know how much money was in the shayukai employee's fund and didn't remember checking the balance himself. He also denied that taking money from the fund was his idea.

The farm ministry uncovered 879 cases of mislabeled food products last year but only disclosed 110 of them in order to protect the companies responsible, according to documents obtained from the ministry Saturday.

The 879 cases involve companies that were issued warnings or guidance by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry or its regional offices during the year, the documents show. The documents were obtained through an information disclosure request.

Sahashi's trial began today, and as expected, he admitted to taking 320 million yen from the NOVA employee's shayukai fund and apologized for the trouble he caused. His lawyers, however, claim that Sahashi's actions do not amount to a crime since as he was acting in the interests of the company.

The trial of former NOVA president Nozomu Sahashi is slated to start tomorrow, June 1, in the Osaka District Court. You'll recall that he was indicted last July on charges of embezzling ¥320 million from an employment benefit fund.

At the beginning of July in 2008, after former NOVA president Nozomu Sahashi was charged with embezzlement, he was also hit with a charge of failing to pay ¥105 million in salary to 400 workers:

The Osaka Labor Bureau sent papers to prosecutors Monday on failed English language school operator Nova Corp. and its former president, Nozomu Sahashi, on suspicion of violating the Labor Standards Law for failing to pay wages to Nova workers.

Last August, I wrote about the lawsuit brought against Fortress Japan, which operates the eikaiwa Global Trinity, for the slimy manner in which they sold lesson packages to its customers. Their methods were straight out of the old NOVA playbook with pressure sales and deception being common practices.